An exciting month-long Christmas cocktail and street food festival is heading for Edinburgh

An exciting month-long Christmas cocktail and street food festival is heading for Edinburgh

Gillian McDonald

Published:2:25 pmDecember 4, 2017

Opening on Wednesday 6 December, the Christmas Cocktail and Street Food Festival will be an all-day destination for both locals and visitors looking to experience some of the best food and drink Edinburgh has to offer.

A month-long food and drink festival

Taking over an empty building on Market Street, the festival will be spread over two floors, with seven different bars, a street food court, tasting room, gift shop and pop-up cinema.

Open from 10am until late each day, the event will have a family-friendly atmosphere during the day, with face painting, magicians and balloon artists to entertain the little ones.

The organisers are currently transforming the empty building on Market Street into a winter wonderland, including the Alpine chalet style street food huts Picture: Gillian McDonald

From 6pm onwards, visitors can enjoy a more grown-up vibe, with cocktails, dinner and live music from local bands throughout the evening.

Day tickets (costing £2.50) can be purchased on the door, and include a hot mulled drink on arrival, plus access to free tastings in the tasting room, screenings of classic Christmas films in the cinema room and lots more.

A festival pass is also available online for £12.50, granting holders access to the Christmas Cocktail and Street Food Festival for the whole month, along with a free cocktail on their first visit.

Six different cocktail bars

As well as a craft beer and gin bar on the ground floor (serving up Edinburgh Gin perfect serves), there will also be six different cocktail bars open at the festival space, with drinks to suit all tastes.

Each bar serves different types of drinks, such as rum-based cocktails at the Chairman’s Reserve tiki bar. Picture: Gillian McDonald

There will be seasonal festive tipples on offer (including mulled drinks and hot toddies), as well as classic cocktails and new creations made by expert mixologists.

“The drinks will change throughout the festival,” explains festival director Matt Urry, who is also the brains behind Edinburgh restaurants, Chameleon and Seasons.

Brands such as Aperol will be serving up their classic drinks, as well as more unusual seasonal cocktails. Picture: Aperol Spritz / Facebook

“Some cocktails will remain on the menu, but others we’ll switch up throughout the month, depending on what people want to see.”

The Waddle Stall will be serving up a range of duck dishes, including confit duck brioche rolls with sichuan pickled cabbage, truffled fried duck egg and parmesan fries.

Seafood fans can tuck into oysters and scallops (served in the shell) as well as traditional Scottish soup, Cullen Skink, at The Haar, while The Root Shack will be serving up halloumi chips and chickpea chips with a range of sauces and toppings.

For those with a sweet tooth, Abbi’s Pantry will sell seasonal cakes, bakes and desserts, including mince pies, sticky toffee pudding, and gooey chocolate brownies.

“I’m really looking forward to working with the new people who we have here,” says Urry.

“I think it’s great to create relationships with other people who are doing pop-ups or running restaurants – it shouldn’t be a competition.”

Urry has hinted that his team, Awesome Events Edinburgh, hope to organise more pop-ups like this in the future.

“I want to create somewhere that has all the best food and drink in Edinburgh in one place, where people can come and taste a bit of everything and see all the great independent businesses we have in the city,” he says.

The Christmas Cocktail and Street Food Festival runs from 6 December to 2 January at 33-34 Market Street, EH1 1QB – awesomeeventsedinburgh.co.uk